Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed has sent a defamation notice worth Rs 10 crore, or Rs 100 million, to Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif.

Earlier this week, at the Asia Society Forum in New York, Asif had said that while the United States was putting pressure on Pakistan to get rid of terrorists like Saeed, the Haqqanis and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, these very men were treated like “darlings” by the US once. “These were the people who were your darlings just 20 to 30 years back,” Dawn quoted Asif as saying. “They were being dined and wined in the White House, and now, you say ‘go to hell Pakistanis’ because you are nurturing these people”. He added, “It is very easy to say Pakistan is floating the Haqqanis and Hafiz Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. They are liabilities.” Asif admitted that they were liabilities but asked for time for Pakistan to get rid of them “because we don’t have the assets to match these liabilities and you are increasing our liabilities further”.

The notice sent to Asif said that Saeed is “respected as a deeply religious and devout Muslim”, and accused the minister of “an absolute lie and falsehood” that the JuD chief had been wined and dined at the White House. “It is shocking to know that the foreign minister of my country is accusing Hafiz Muhammad Saeed of taking wine,” Saeed’s lawyer AK Dogar said, according to Dawn. “This is abusive language and can never be used about my client. He is [a] patriotic Islam loving Muslim.” He said Asif would also have to pay for Saeed’s litigation costs during the case.

Saeed, who is believed to have been behind the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008, and four other of his aides were placed under house arrest in Lahore on January 30 this year. Recently, the US has come down hard on Pakistan for allegedly harbouring terrorists. The US had earlier placed a $10-million bounty on Saeed for planning terror attacks.